Kobe Bryant: So Much Has Changed in the 20-Years Since His NBA Debut

Kobe Bryant played his first NBA game on November 3, 1996. Kobe played 6-minutes off the bench in a Lakers win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He went 0-for-1 from the field and had 1 rebound and 1 block. Fellow rookie Derek Fisher played 13 minutes. Current Lakers coach Byron Scott played 19 minutes. 24-year old Shaquille O’Neal had 35 points and 19 rebounds.

Man, things sure were different twenty years ago. Here are some more things that are not the same now as they were then..

The #1 movie in America was Romeo + Juliet.

It was homecoming weekend on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

Hank Scorpio offered Homer new job on The Simpsons.

Mulder saw the field where he died on The X-Files. (Spoiler alert?)

Chris Rock hosted Saturday Night Live hours earlier. The Wallflowers performed “One Headlight.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to keep the Macarena by Los Del Rio from being the #1 song in America.

America was two days away from re-electing Bill Clinton. Bob Dole and Ross Perot had know idea what was about to happen.

Barry Sanders rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries in a Lions loss to Brett Favre and the Packers.

Clay Matthews Jr., the father of Pitch Perfect 2’s Clay Matthews III, sacked Kerry Collins 3 times in a Falcons win over the Panthers.

ESPN radio personality Danny Kanell dueled CBS radio personality Boomer Esiason as the Giants beat the Cardinals, 16-8.

Yahoo! radio personality Sean Salisbury threw two touchdown passes in a Chargers win over Jim Harbaugh and the Colts. The Michigan coach’s social media channels were eerily quiet after his 18-of-44, 4-interception performance that day.

In fact, no one said anything on social media that day. Kobe Bryant has been playing so long there wasn’t social media. And now he’s retired. Time to bring back Los Del Rio.